PSYCH 3540
Psychopathology and Mental Health
This is an introductory course in psychopathology or the scientific study of mental health disorders. The course will include definitions, theories, and classification of Psychpathological behavior. Content will focus on symptoms, classification, prevalence, etiology, and treatment of mental health disorders, including mood, anxiety, eating, schizophrenia spectrum, substance use, and personality disorders. PREREQ: Psych 100B.
Instructors
Erin Moran, Karcher, Michael Perino, Moran, Nicole Karcher, Oltmanns, Renee Thompson, Thompson
Reviews
2 or less hrs/week
so chill, stopped going to lecture halfway through semester and ending with an A in the class, plus Moran has a background in this line of work so she's pretty knowledgeable on things. recommend for easy A + it's not boring
12/1/2024
Every psych major should take this course.nAn easy A, attendance isn't mandatory, extra credits, easy final project
7/11/2024
2 or less hrs/week
Exams are very fair if you do the readings.
6/21/2024
4-6 hrs/week
interesting, easy, and straightforward. only reviewed slides as review material and it was enough to get a solid A
5/21/2024
6-8 hrs/week
The exams were extremely difficult but not impossible… the only class I have ever taken that I actually did the reading for and it helped a LOT
5/21/2024
2 or less hrs/week
super interesting class and not bad at all. tests are all memorization of material from lecture. they said the textbook was required, but i did just fine without it, since pretty much everything was covered in lecture
5/18/2024
This course was extremely hard for me. The lectures went so fast, and no videos were posted. Dr. Thompson is not understanding or friendly towards students, and is clearly at the university as a researcher. If you're interested in psychopathology, take it another semester with a different professor. The lectures are not helpful for success.
5/8/2024
100% recommend taking Psychopathology with Professor Karcher! Great lecturer, useful slides, and cares about student success. Exams also were easier than class material, I always felt over prepared after exams (in a good way).
3/17/2024
Goated professor. Caring, accessible, and wants you to succeed. Going to be completely real here, studied max of 3 hours for each test (12 am - 4 am the day of the test) to focus on short-term memory encoding/storage, and went through 2-3 repeats of the material on the study guide as it corresponded to my notes. Ended up almost acing each test ;)
2/22/2024
Professor Karcher is an amazing professor who genuinely cares about her students and wants them to succeed. She is a great lecturer and makes the long class periods seem short with videos, interactive portions, and personal anecdotes. I wish I could take another class with her and I thoroughly recommend this course! need to study for tests tho!
12/22/2023
She is super sweet and very knowledgeable. There is a lot of memorization but it is pretty manageable, I find her lectures to be engaging and we cover a lot of interesting topics. Definitely recommend!
11/15/2023
Professor Karcher is an excellent lecturer, and Psych 354 has been very interesting. I found that the content has been easy to learn, and she posts exam reviews which are helpful and reliable.
10/31/2023
Professor Karcher seems like a nice enough person, but she goes through hundreds of facts, then expects you to memorize every single one of them for a poorly designed multiple choice exam. It has twice the amount of stuff to memorize than an average psych class. Lectures are average, slides are below average. Would take with a different professor.
10/19/2023
As a Psychology major who has gotten As in all other psych classes, this class was harder than I expected. Lectures went too fast for me to keep up and readings took a long time. I could not figure out what to do in order to succeed in this class. The only reason I have an OK grade is because I had friends in the class who seemed to understand.
5/7/2023
Pretty much your whole grade is made up of 4 50 questions MCQ exams, the questions aren't hard but they are focused on the textbook which you have to read. She records the lectures but you have to request them. She's fine but she doesn't really care about making personal connections. The TAs also grade hard on the few homework assignments.
3/1/2023
Okay content. Really not so interesting lectures. Bad class structure. Only exams. Only take this class if you're a psych major.
1/19/2023
Renee Thompson is not a good lecturer. She is VERY dull, passive-aggressive, and condescending. She often doesn't know how to answer students' questions during lectures and her office hours are a waste of time. Final grades aren't out yet but I've had an A- all semester. The class is easy enough if you attend the lectures and read the textbook.
5/11/2022
Huge reason im leaving WashU. Students often triggered by class, bc the professor gave no warnings before graphic topics. Emails were not responded to, however personal they were. If you dont like a lot of reading, lectures, or multiple-choice tests, you wont get a good grade. If youre highly interested in the topics, that helps carry you through.
5/10/2022
Good class, it's just a lecture so you pretty much have to go everyday if you want to get the material. No recorded poll everywhere and the slides are posted online. She does go through the slides pretty fast though so I would recommend taking notes on your computer or else you will fall behind. Interesting class, would recommend.
3/11/2022
I loved this class because it (like most psych classes at WashU) was very clear what was expected of you. Show up to lecture, take notes, and study textbook material, and you should be good. It was also pretty interesting. Since the requirements were really clear, this was never a class that gave me too much stress.
5/8/2020